Spanish Supercup

Espanyol 0 - Barcelona 1

Barcelona are on the way to retaining the Spanish Supercup title after beating city neighbours Espanyol in their first leg match. Víctor Valdés had to beat out a couple of shots from Fredson early on as the hosts got off to a strong start, but Barça got in to their stride after that and Iraizoz did well to keep out Xavi. With a minute to go to half time Frank Rijkaard's side took the lead when Ronaldinho drew the defence before setting up Giuly for him to beat Iraizoz, and could have added to their scoreline after the restart had Iraizoz not saved several efforts, in particularly from Messi and Ronaldinho. (17.08.06)

PS. After the game ended Espanyol made a formal protest to the Federation for the inclusion of Puyol and Xavi in the line up after they had pulled out of Spain's friendly with Iceland due to injuries.